Clothes hamper



Oct. 31, 1967 J. R. MORTON ETAL 3,349,936

CLOTHES HAMPER Filed Oct. 12,. 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Inventors James R.Mo r'fon. wqgne L.Mortorz J. R. MORTON ETAL Oct. 31, 1,967

CLOTHES HAMPER Filed Oct. 12, 1965 2 Sheets-Shea Ifiventors James R. Morton.

wagxze L. MOrtDTL fl-H-orne United States Patent 3,349,936 CLOTHES HAMPER James R. Morton, 5 W. 24th St., and Wayne L. Morton, 920 E. th St., both of Spencer, Iowa 51301 Filed Oct. 12, 1965, Ser. No. 495,053

1 Claim. (Cl. 217-3) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A basket, such as an ordinary fruit basket, is provided with a liner so that the device may be used as a clothes hamper or a laundry bag. The liner has holes, reinforced with a tape, to receive the basket handles and has a top extension which can be folded over the outside to the bottom of the basket and tied with used as an upright laundry bag, the top extension of the liner is larger than the bottom portion and increases the capacity for holding clothes.

This invention relates to a clothes hamper and has to do particularly with a hamper having a liner within a support, such as a basket, said liner being removable for use as a laundry bag.

It is common practice to'use wooden baskets, such as fruit baskets, for receptacles of soiled or washed clothes. Also, such baskets or similar containers are used to transport clothes to and from automatic laundry machines. Improvised containers of this nature have the disadvantage that they often contain metal parts which tend to rust and to discolor the clothes. Furthermore, the rough parts of the container may snag or tear the clothes.

Liners have been placed in containers for various pur poses heretofore, but the liners have been disposed of when the contents of the containers are removed. For example, liners have been proposed for sanitary purposes in garbage cans or for protection of products in packages during shipping. Obviously, such liners are not suitable to be removed and used as laundry bags.

An object of the present invention is to provide an economical laundry basket having a removable liner which may be used as a laundry bag.

Another object of the invention is to produce a basket or other container with a liner which is fitted or tailored to the container to expand the capacity thereof and to cover and to secure the contents therein.

A further object of the invention is to supply a liner having a rigid support and adapted to be folded over the outside of the support to fit the contour thereof.

Another object of the invention is to provide a laundry bag having a smaller lower portion to fit into a rigid container and a larger upper portion to be folded over the outside of said container.

Also an object of the invention is to form as an article of manufacture a combination laundry basket, clothes hamper and laundry bag.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a removable liner rigidly supported by a basket or other container which is larger at the top than at the bottom, said liner adapted to have the smaller bottom portion set inside of the basket and the larger top portion folded over the outside of the basket thereby increasing the size of the container when the larger portion of the liner is unfolded and extended upward from the top of the container.

Also an object of the invention is to devise a laundry bag with the bottom and top portions and having openings in the middle portion so that the bottom portion can be placed inside a container, the top portion fitted around the outside of the container and the handles of the container extended through the openings in the middle portion of the liner.

a drawstring. When Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description of the invention and from the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a basket fitted with the liner.

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken through the line 22 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the liner removed from the basket and the top of the liner unfolded and extended upwards to form a laundry bag.

FIG. 4 is a perspective View showing the laundry bag full of clothes and the lower portion thereof set in the basket to form a hamper FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the liner full of clothes, removed from the basket and used as a laundry bag.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 4, the numeral 6 indicates a basket having handles 7. The basket may be an ordinary bushel fruit basket made of wood. However, any desired size of basket may be used and instead of wood any other preferred material may be used to form the basket or similar container. For example, any material capable of furnishing a degree of rigidity, such as plastic, metal or woven material may be used.

A liner, designated generally by the numeral 8, is constructed to be removably associated with the basket. As shown in the drawings the liner is conveniently made by sewing a piece of fabric by stitches to form seams 10', but the liner could be made by fabricating, as by weaving, to eliminate any or all of the seams.

A suitable fabric is preferably used to construct the liner. Suitable materials have been found to be cotton drill, canvas, plastics and vinyl impregnated fabrics. The fabrics may be made for example by casting, extrusion, spinning and/ or weaving depending on the materials used. Ordinarily the fibers are woven but in the case of certain thermoplastic materials the fibers may be heat sealed instead of weaving.

Openings 11 may be provided in the middle section of the liner to receive handles 7 depending on the type of container. If a container such as an ordinary fruit basket is used having handles, then the openings are essential. The openings are unnecessary in case the container has no handles extending above the top of the container. The fabric at the openings is advantageously reinforced or protected by tape 12 stitched thereto at the edges. Instead of tape, a safety surge or other suitable stitch may be used.

The liner is enlarged at the open end or top so that it can be folded down over the outside of the basket with the inside of the liner exposed as shown in FIG. 1. The top portion is preferrably of about the same length as the smaller bottom section whereby the inside of the basket is covered substantially to the bottom.

A drawstring 15 is provided at the top of the liner. The top edge of the liner is folded over on itself a short distance and stitched to form a conduit 16 as shown in FIG. 2. When the string is threaded through the conduit and the ends are pulled the liner is tucked together and closed. The string or cord may be made of cotton or plastic or any fibrous material.

The lined basket of FIG. 1 may be used as a hamper to receive soiled or Washed clothes. When the basket is full, the larger portion of the liner may be removed from the outside of the basket to increase the capacity of the hamper as shown in FIG. 4.

If desired, the liner may be removed and used as a laundry bag as shown in FIG. 5. Such a laundry bag without the rigid support may be preferable in certain instances as where it is desirarble to hang the bag by the string or for the storage thereof where a rigid container might be undesirable or unnecessary.

Frequently laundry is transported to and from a public washing station, such as an establishment having coin operated machines. The hamper with a rigid support such as shown in FIG. 4 is more easily carried and handled than a flexible laundry bag. The hamper full of clothes may be conveniently carried by the handles 7 whereas a laundry bag may be difiicult to grasp or it held by the drawstring damage may be caused thereto or to the bag. The rigid support also helps to protect heavy loads of clothes. For example, the hamper of clothes may be placed in the machine and the liner turned down over the outside of the basket. The clean clothes, folded or otherwise, may be placed in the basket without danger of soiling. When the basket is full the folded down portion of the liner may be turned up to protect the clothes either with or without filling the enlarged upper portion of the bag. The basket support of the present invention often eliminates the need to use carts and similar devices of transportation for laundry.

The present invention has the advantage that rough containers, which might ordinarily cause snagging of clothes such as stockings, are covered with a protective material whereby the containers can be handled or walked around without any detrimental effects on the clothing. Also containers, such as baskets, have rough bottoms which may scuff upholstery when set in a car seat. The container of the present invention may be removed from the basket and set in a car seat without any damage to the seat while the basket itself may be set on the floor of the car or put in the trunk of the car where it can cause no damage to car materials.

A feature of the present invention is the openings in the liner to receive the handles of certain baskets or containers having handles. The openings make it possible to grasp the handles whether the liner is full of clothes as shown in FIG. 4 or is partially full or empty as shown in FIG. 1.

The present invention is not intended to be limited to the specific features described herein and various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention described or from the spirit of the invention defined in the appended claim.

We claim:

A combination clothes hamper, basket liner and laundry bag which comprises a basketlike container, handles on the container, a removable fabric liner for the container, said liner having an enlarged top portion for folding over and covering substantially entirely the inner and outer sides of the basket, a drawstring operating in a hem in the top edge of the liner to draw the top substantially entirely over and around the outer side of the container near the bottom and tape reinforced openings in the liner permitting the grasping of said handles, the arrangement being such that when the liner is used as a laundry bag said top portion is larger in capacity than the bottom portion of the bag.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 595,685 12/1897 Abraham ISO-11 1,941,871 1/1934 Struve 220- 2,159,192 5/1938 Werdin 220-65 2,319,384 5/1943 Callan et a1. 22065 2,439,276 5/1948 Thiele 217-3 FOREIGN PATENTS 919,269 10/ 1954 Germany. 530,771 7/1955 Italy.

JOSEPH R. LECLAIR, Primary Examiner.

RAPHAEL H. SCHWARTZ, THERON E. CONDON Examiners. 

